


let our hearts and souls align

by AlexiaBlackbriar13



Series: Olicity AU Series [13]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Celebrating Hanukkah Together, Christmas Party, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, For jennfics, Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and happy holidays!, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Olicity Secret Santa 2018, Season/Series 02, Set within Season 2, Sharing a Bed, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Undercover, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 12:26:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17141735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/pseuds/AlexiaBlackbriar13
Summary: “So let me get this straight,” Felicity said slowly. “You need me to fake being your soulmate and girlfriend so you can infiltrate an elite soulmate couples only Christmas event… that you suspect is a front for a mass illegal weapons deal.”The impassive expression on Oliver’s face did nothing to hide the fact that he obviously felt extremely guilty asking her to do this. “Yeah, that’s basically it.”AKA a S2 undercover at a christmas party as fake (but real) soulmates in a fake relationship AU





	let our hearts and souls align

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jennfics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennfics/gifts).



> For jennfics (@jennonthewire on tumblr) for Olicity Secret Santa 2018. The original post can be found **[here.](https://olicitysecretsanta.tumblr.com/post/181375485408/secret-santa-2018-let-our-hearts-and-souls)**
> 
> Prompts were soulmate AU, fake relationship and bed sharing tropes. WELL… I went with all three. This is set in S2 and is an undercover at a Christmas party, fake (but real!) soulmate, fake relationship Olicity AU. With Hanukkah celebrations, soulmarks and bed sharing.
> 
> It was SO much fun to write and I really hope you enjoy!
> 
> Massive thanks to Sam, CheerUpLovely (@yespleasehawkeyee on Tumblr, @ghostfoxlovely on Twitter) for her amazing cheerleading and excellent beta-ing.
> 
> Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

“So let me get this straight,” Felicity said slowly. “You need me to fake being your soulmate and girlfriend so you can infiltrate an elite soulmate couples only Christmas event... that you suspect is a front for a mass illegal weapons deal.”

The impassive expression on Oliver’s face did nothing to hide the fact that he obviously felt extremely guilty asking her to do this. “Yeah, that’s basically it.”

Felicity ran that over in her head for a minute. It was early evening so Diggle hadn’t arrived yet, and she and Oliver were alone in the bunker. He’d stalked in and immediately approached her while she was working on improving their satellite connections; he’d informed her about an operation the Bratva had told him about, where a high-ranking executive officer named Dominic Jenkins in Kord Industries was going to be illegally selling off newly developed hydrogen cluster bombs to the Triad, for an obscene amount of money - using the Kord Industries Soulmate Couples Christmas Gala as a cover.

The archer had then told her about how he had acquired an invitation so he could attend the gala as Oliver Queen, and stop the deal as the Arrow, but as it was exclusively a soulmate couples party, he would need her to accompany him.

While everybody in the world had a soulmate, Felicity had yet to find hers. There had been a time she’d suspected Oliver was her soulmate. Her soulmate was a small arrow with the infinity symbol in its shaft, on her right shoulder blade; the obvious connection between the arrow element of her mark and Oliver made her wonder whether or not he was secretly hiding an identical mark somewhere on his body.

During the first couple of weeks of working with him on his crusade, she’d shamelessly ogled his torso as he worked out shirtless, but never caught sight of a soulmark. Eventually, her patience has snapped and she’d asked about it. Her heart had sunk when Oliver had confessed that his soulmark had been located at the small of his back and had been burnt off during his five years away. He barely remembered what it had looked like.

So both she and Oliver were alone and soulmate-less. Diggle’s soulmate, Lyla, worked for a secret government agency so he didn’t get to see her very often, but at least he’d found his other half. Dig constantly tried to instill hope in the both of them that it was only inevitable that they would meet their soulmates one day. Even though Oliver didn’t have a soulmark to match to his soulmate, he would know. Diggle kept talking about having a Revelation. Felicity liked the idea of that, but at this point in her life - twenty-four years old, working as Oliver’s executive assistant by day and his tech support by night - she’d basically given up on trying to find her soulmate.

Which was why she was a little pissed off by the fact that Oliver was coming and rubbing her single nature in her face by asking her to fake being his soulmate for an Arrow mission. But she wasn’t going to let him think she was upset. She hated the idea of him pitying her for having not found her other half yet, especially since with no soulmark, the chance of Oliver finding his soulmate was slim to none - he had a much lower chance than her.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Felicity said honestly.

“It’s one evening, and you’d only have to hold my hand, plaster on a smile and sip champagne.” Oliver paused, then inclined his head and add, “Well, and act as my tech support on comms when I take down Jenkins and the Triad.” When she still appeared uncertain, his expression grew pleading. “You’re the only person I can think of asking to accompany me, Felicity. I need support in there of the vigilante and emotional kind, and you’re the only person I trust enough to have my back.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Oliver was right. He couldn’t ask his mother, sister or Laurel to attend with him because one of his family members was obviously not going to be his soulmate, and Laurel didn’t know that he was the Arrow so would weigh the archer down rather than help him on this mission.

He couldn’t ask a stranger, either. He truly did need somebody he could trust, and Felicity was his only option. She tried not to feel dejected about the fact that the only reason Oliver was asking her to this Christmas party was so she could aid him in taking down a criminal.

Plastering on a fake reassuring expression, she responded, “I’ll go with you. There’s one problem though - the invitation states proof of soulmate-status is required by the attending couples.” She waved the parchment in his face, pointing out the particular line. Oliver snagged it from her fingers and frowned at it thoughtfully. “That probably means they want to see matching soulmarks on the door. You don’t have a soulmark anymore so you definitely don’t match mine.”

“I can get a temporary tattoo,” he suggested. “That should work.”

“Okay, yeah, that probably would,” Felicity agreed begrudgingly. “When is this Christmas gala?”

“Friday.”

Which meant that they had two days. “All right. I’ll coordinate with Detective Lance. You tell Diggle about the plan and get that tattoo sorted. You’re going to need a photo of my soulmark so you can copy it.” Twisting around, she unbuttoned the blouse she was wearing to slip it over her shoulder, exposing her right shoulder blade and the mark upon it to the archer. “You have to make sure they’re exact. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had some sort of mark scanning technology to check matches. That means you need to get the size and lines completely right or they’ll find out we’re fakes.”

“Won’t be a problem,” he assured her, taking a picture with his cell phone. Felicity jumped when she felt his calloused thumb gently brush over her soulmark. “Sorry. Just need to get an idea of its size. Are you sure you’re okay with all this? I know you have Hanukkah plans. Friday’s the second day.”

Felicity blinked in surprise, touched that Oliver was keeping up with the Jewish holiday for her. “It’s fine. The only plans I had for Friday were saying the blessings, lighting my Hannukah, eating latkes and binge-watching Parks and Rec. It might be a Christmas party, but I can pretend it’s a holiday one. What color will you be wearing?”

Oliver stared back at her blankly. “What?”

“If we’re going as a fake soulmate couple, we need to color coordinate our outfits,” she told him impatiently. “What color suit will you be wearing?”

“Just a plain black tux, I think.”

Felicity nodded and swiveled around in her chair to face her monitors again. “I’ll probably wear something red. I’ll send you a photo of my dress later so you can choose matching cufflinks or a tie.”

“Good idea.”

Except as Oliver squeezed her shoulder and walked away, heading towards his weapons counter to begin checking over his bow, Felicity thought it was anything but a good idea. She already had feelings for the archer - very non-platonic feelings - and pretending to be his soulmate and girlfriend, even for an evening, was not going to help with that.

Whether Oliver was aware of how she felt towards him or not was a difficult debate to be had. Surely it was obvious by the way she stuttered, blushed and completely lost her already rather lacking brain-to-mouth filter when around him - not to mention the way she stared at him while he worked out. After a night faking being soulmates, her and Oliver’s relationship would undoubtedly return to normal; her heart breaking was unpreventable.

“This is going to be fun,” she muttered under her breath.

* * *

Oliver gazed down at the photo of Felicity’s soulmark on his phone with a tortured expression and an ache in his chest. He was sitting in the backroom of a tattoo shop that belonged to one of Alexi Leonov’s men, waiting to get a copy of the infinity arrow soulmark inked onto his own body. Diggle was finding a place to park the car outside so he was currently alone.

He knew that pretending to be Felicity’s soulmate and romantic partner was going to be painful. It was probably going to hurt Felicity as well. But there was no other way for them to get into the Kord Industries gala and stop that Triad deal going down. Hopefully, Oliver would be able to resist the urge to do exactly what his instincts screamed at him to do every day: admit that he had fallen head over heels in love with Felicity Smoak.

He knew it would be too dangerous to develop a relationship with her considering his extremely dangerous lifestyle. It was better for him to remain alone. Anybody who associated with him became a target, and he didn’t want to imagine what might happen if he and Felicity began dating, but the criminals of Starling City discovered the romantic connection between the Arrow and Oliver Queen’s executive assistant.

No, Oliver and Felicity could not pursue a relationship. It wouldn’t be possible.

And yet…

Oliver flicked over to the next photo in his cell phone’s library. It was a picture of the framed photo that sat on the windowsill in his bedroom at Queen mansion. The photo was of Oliver, Tommy, and Thea as children, preparing to jump into an outdoor pool together. Both of the boys were fifteen years old and grasping five-year-old Thea’s hands between them. All three of the kids had their backs to the camera, but were peering around to smile widely at the person taking the photo.

The archer’s eyes drifted down to the small black smudge on his teenage self’s back. He subconsciously reached around, twisting his arm back to run his knuckles over the thick second-degree burn scars that now covered his lower back area - where his own soulmark used to be before his skin had been too badly damaged for it to show anymore.

The photo wasn’t in good resolution and became extremely blurry when zoomed in. But focusing in on the black smudge of a soulmark on fifteen-year-old Oliver’s back, the archer was able to identify a faint line, two loops, and flicks at the end of the line. It wasn’t exactly clear in the image, but it had been enough to trigger memories of when he was younger and discovered his soulmark for the first time.

Now he did remember, he couldn’t believe he’d forgotten in the first place. All he’d known as a teenager was that his mark was some kind of arrow with a sideways eight on it, and that it meant he was tied to somebody he’d never met before and would date and fall in love with per soulmate convention, without any choice. That had been his worst nightmare when he’d been a frat boy in college.

But now, older and wiser than he once was, Oliver knew that his soulmark was an arrow with the infinity symbol in the shaft, and he knew what it meant and who exactly his soul was destined to be bonded to.

He and Felicity had matching soulmarks.

He and Felicity were soulmates.

“Something on your mind?”

Oliver sat back in his chair as Diggle entered through the back door, running his fingers through his hair tiredly. His cell phone hung loosely between his fingers. He had a lot on his mind and he wondered how he must look for his bodyguard to have so easily picked that up. “Yeah,” the archer answered quietly.

“Not just the mission tomorrow, I’m guessing,” Diggle quirked an eyebrow.

Diggle had been strangely okay with the idea of Oliver and Felicity faking a soulmate relationship to infiltrate the Christmas gala. Apart from a slight frown, he hadn’t voiced any protests, which hadn’t been what Oliver expected. Diggle was somebody who believed that soulmate bonds were sacred and should be respected; it was surprising that he wasn’t angry or pissed off by the concept of his two best friends faking one just for an Arrow mission. He had, however, questioned in some detail about how Felicity had reacted to this idea and how she felt about it. Oliver knew that Diggle had spoken to her last night after he’d returned from his patrol. Felicity was much more likely to be honest with Diggle than him. He wondered briefly what exactly the blonde had told the bodyguard.

“I just discovered something that’s going to change my life forever,” Oliver told him, a faint waver in his voice.

Diggle took a seat next to him, appearing vaguely concerned but mostly interested. “Care to elaborate?”

There was no point trying to hide this from Diggle. He was one of the most intuitive men Oliver had ever met, and he trusted him implicitly. Wordlessly, he handed over his cell phone, first showing him the picture of Felicity’s soulmark, then switched to the photo of him as a teenager and zooming in to the very blurry dark mark on his back.

Once the bodyguard had seen what he needed to, Oliver rested his elbows on his knees and placed his head in his hands, clenching his fists in his short hair. He couldn’t imagine what Diggle was thinking right now; he kept on flicking back and forth between the two photos, his expression morphing from one of realization to shock, then disbelief, acceptance, and sympathy.

“Jesus, Oliver,” he said softly. “How long have you known about this?”

“Since this morning,” the archer admitted.

“Does Felicity know?”

He shook his head. “No. She can’t. She knows my soulmark was burnt off and I’ve never seen her mark up close before. We never had the opportunity to compare and we’ve never had a proper conversation about soulmates.” Exhaling shakily, Oliver confessed, “I don’t know what to do. She deserves to know and I need to tell her. But it would place her in an indescribable amount of danger if we decided to move forward and be together.”

“Felicity is not fragile, Oliver. You can protect her but she can also protect herself. Let her decide what level of danger she’s in by being with you.”

Diggle had a point. There were, of course, certain measures that they could take in order to set up protection for Felicity. The first and most obvious would be keeping any relationship they had on the down low. “But how exactly do you tell somebody you’ve been best friends with for a year that you’re soulmates, but didn’t know it?”

“Well, you both have feelings for each other, so that should make it easier,” Diggle said frankly, passing his phone back over.

“Felicity might not -”

“Oliver,” Diggle cut in, with a pointed look. “I think we both know that anything you say to counter that would be a lie. Felicity has feelings for you, and you also have feelings for her. Don’t deny it.”

“... I’m not.”

“You never suspected before that the two of you are soulmates?”

“No. Why? Should I have?”

Diggle shrugged. “I definitely did. The connection between you two was immediate last year, and incredibly strong. You had no reason to trust each other as quickly as you did, but it was almost instinctive for you and Felicity to rely on one another. The only thing that threw me off was the fact you didn’t have a soulmark to match hers.” He pointed at Oliver’s phone. “That all but confirms it for me. You need to tell Felicity, and soon. Try and find another photo of you as a kid with your soulmark visible and she might be able to run a digital match analysis.”

“I don’t know if I should tell her before the mission tomorrow,” Oliver sighed.

“If you need a day or two to get your head around it all, that’s understandable. It also might distract both of you from the mission and place you both in danger. The photos aren’t absolute proof that you’re soulmates - you’ll both need to do further research and tests which might take days, even weeks, to complete. But you can’t keep this a secret from Felicity for long.”

The archer nodded. “I’ll tell her on Saturday,” he decided, “After the mission is over.”

The tattoo artist walked in at that point, telling Oliver he was ready for him. Exchanging an impassive look with his bodyguard, the archer followed the man through into the main section of the shop and sat down in the chair set out there for customers. As the man sanitized all the equipment and washed his hands, he conversed with Oliver in Russian.

“ _You want a fake but convincing soulmark in semi-permanent ink, right?_ ”

“ _How long will the tattoo last in semi-permanent ink?_ ” Oliver asked.

The man waved his hand. “ _Eh, between two and four weeks. You have a picture for me? And know the size?_ ”

“ _Yes_.” Oliver showed him the photo and then indicated the size with his fingers. “ _Will it look authentic even when it’s semi-permanent?_ ”

The tattoo artist paused, glancing over at him. “ _It will look better if permanent._ ”

He made his decision there and then. “ _I’d like it to be permanent then, please._ ”

“ _Okay. Where?_ ” the man asked, not seeming to care as he switched out the inks he was using.

Oliver pulled the collar of his sweater and bent his neck to expose the back of it, tapping at the base with his fingertips, where the skin was remarkably unmarred. “ _There. How much is this going to cost?_ ”

“ _For a realistic soulmark? $100._ ”

Oliver called his bodyguard out from the back room and slipped him his unlimited credit card. “I need you to go and withdraw $200 in cash for me.” He turned to the tattoo artist, adding in Russian, “ _The extra 100 ensures your silence._ ”

“ _Of course, Captain._ ” The man bowed his head.

As the archer felt the sting of the needle against his skin and the buzz of the machine ringing through his mind, he closed his eyes. Although this was technically a fake soulmark, it meant that he would permanently bear Felicity’s mark upon his skin.

Even if they proved not to be soulmates (although he was pretty certain at this point that they were), that didn’t seem like a bad thing. Felicity was the one person who constantly gave him the strength he needed to survive, and she inspired him to be better.

Whether their souls were connected or not, Felicity was his light in the darkness. She would continue to be so for the rest of his life. For Oliver, it would be a privilege to always carry a piece of her with him.

No turning back now.

* * *

Oliver looked absolutely sinful dressed up in a black tux with a dark crimson bow tie, and judging by his dilated pupils and the stunned expression on his face, Felicity must have looked equally as breathtaking in her sleeveless red dress with a slit up her left thigh.

The archer and his bodyguard picked her up from her apartment so they could drive to the Kord Industries Christmas gala together; arriving at the same time, hand in hand, would aid in their appearance as soulmates. Felicity could almost feel Oliver’s eyes flitting up and down her body and she could see the tension in his shoulders as he stepped out and held out his hand to help her into the backseat of the black sedan.

“You look beautiful,” he told her with a small, hesitant smile.

“Thank you,” she replied, blushing. “You look amazing as well.”

“Let’s go over the plan,” Diggle said, once they were both settled side by side and they were driving back out into the city. “So the gala is taking place in the grand ballroom of the Mont Saint Laurent Hotel. All of the guest couples are assigned a suite in the hotel upon arrival, so your room is a good place to set up a base of operations.”

“The intel said that the deal between Jenkins and the Triad will be going down at 10:40,” Oliver continued.

“Do we know where?” Felicity asked.

The archer shook his head. “No, but it’s got to be somewhere in the hotel. Will you be able to gain access to the CCTV in time for that?”

“I’ve got three hours,” Felicity raised an eyebrow. “You know I could hack that CCTV in three minutes if I really wanted to. We’ll have to be out of the ballroom and in our suite at least ten minutes before the deal is scheduled so I track down where it’s happening and you can suit up in time. Probably twenty minutes before, to arouse less suspicion. I can fake being sick to get us out of there.”

“Good idea,” Oliver praised. “The Arrow stops the deal, and then Detective Lance will bring in the calvary at midnight. I’ll meet Felicity back at our suite and depending on how hysterical things have become, we’ll decide from there whether to lay low for the night in the suite or get extracted by you, Dig.”

“And you’re sure Lance will get there on time?” the bodyguard questioned.

“I’ve set up an automatic digital delivery of all the emails between Jenkins and the Triad discussing the sale of the cluster bombs so the SCPD will get them at 10:50,” Felicity informed him. “It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes for the police to arrive, especially since Lance already knows about our plan and will be prepared.”

Oliver nodded and stared out of the window. Felicity watched him carefully. The archer was rubbing his finger and thumb together on his dominant hand in the tick that always seemed to appear when he was particularly anxious. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Oliver was nervous about the mission. She didn’t know which part he was the most worried about: the pretending to be soulmates, pretending to be in a relationship, or taking down the Triad and Jenkins. But seeing as how Oliver had managed to defeat Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer, all by himself, it couldn’t be the Arrow part of the mission that was concerning him.

“Where’d you get the fake soulmark tattoo?” she asked him quietly.

Oliver shifted forward in his seat, folding over his knees and tapping the back of his neck. Felicity hesitantly reached out to pull down the collars of his suit jacket and shirt. A sharp intake of breath was elicited from the archer when she gently stroked the pads of her fingers over the small black arrow, tracing the infinity loops. It was an exact match of her mark. The tattoo artist who had given Oliver this fake soulmate was incredibly talented. If she didn’t know was it false, Felicity wouldn’t have had any idea about it being anything but real.

“Wow,” she whispered.

“Does it look authentic?” he asked.

“Scarily so. It’s weird seeing my mark on somebody else.”

Oliver tugged on his collar, prompting her to lower her hand. “Whoever your soulmate is, they have a matching mark. It won’t be weird seeing it on them.” He sounded strangely dejected by her comment. “We need to go over our cover story.”

“We’re just telling people our usual cover, right? I worked in IT, you spilled a latte on a laptop, I helped you with tech stuff, we eventually became friends, went on coffee and Big Belly Burger outings, the Undertaking happened and you hired me as your executive assistant after returning home from ‘Europe’ to become CEO of QC.”

The archer couldn’t help but grin at her finger quotes that accompanied the name of the continent. “Right. We found out we’re soulmates after when… I think it would be better if I discovered we were soulmates rather than you did.” When she nodded in agreement, he continued. “So I found out we’re soulmates when we went out for coffee; you were wearing a sleeveless top and I saw your soulmark? We compared marks, matched and decided to try out a relationship… a month ago? But we’re trying to keep it on the down-low because we don’t want public attention.”

“It’s a decent story,” Diggle piped up from the driver’s seat. “Makes sense as well. The Kord Industries’ Christmas Gala is private and the perfect party to make your first soulmate couple appearance.”

There was a beat of silence.

Realization settled over the three of them, which for Felicity, instantly transformed into fear and panic.

“Oh my god, people are actually going to think we’re soulmates,” she whispered, staring at Oliver with wide eyes. “They’re going to think this is real.”

“Yeah, I’m realizing that now, Felicity,” he said sharply.

“This is bad, this is so bad,” she began to ramble, wringing her hands nervously. “It’ll get leaked to the press, everybody will find out, people will really think we’re soulmates and a couple, everyone will think the only reason I’m your executive assistant is nepotism or for sex purposes and - oh _god_ , Oliver, your mother, sister and - and _Laurel_ , they’re all going to think it’s real and we can’t exactly tell them the truth because that would lead to you having to tell them you’re the Arrow -”

She immediately cut herself off when Oliver whipped around and grasped her wrists tightly, forcing her to look into his eyes. She got lost in that ocean of blue for a moment before shaking herself, coming back to the present with shallow, stuttered breaths. “Felicity. Breathe. Calm down, it’s okay. Yes, this is something neither of us anticipated or realized beforehand would happen, but we are best friends and partners. We will deal with this together. We can easily pretend to be in a relationship for a week or two, and then we’ll just say we called it off because it wasn’t working out. Soulmates break up all the time and although society frowns upon bond splits, they’re not exactly uncommon now. Things will work out. You will not be trapped in a relationship with me.”

She blinked at him and spluttered, “You think being _trapped_ in a relationship with you is what I’m scared about? No, I’m terrified of your _mother and sister_ , Oliver! Moira has never liked me and Thea and I barely know each other. And I’m pretty sure Laurel hates me! And I can’t even begin to imagine how the media are going to spin our story and knowing what the reporters in this city are like, they’ll make out that even if we are soulmates, I’m still some glorified gold-digging secretary who spreads her legs for you!” She lowered her voice, muttering, “Not that that would be any different.”

Oliver’s eyes turned fierce. “Hey. I’m sorry the media are horrible to you. They shouldn’t be. You are the only reason QC is currently functioning as a running company and I wish they could see that. But I promise you, I will not let them drag you through the mud.” He bumped his shoulder against hers gently with a tender smile, the storm in his gaze evaporating. “You’re my soulmate and I know you don’t need me to defend your honor - you’re no damsel in distress, that’s for sure - but I’ll protect you. Against the press, and my family and friends.”

“Not really your soulmate,” she reminded him.

His smile dropped. “Yeah. But I am for the next twelve hours or so. Gotta get into character, right?” The chuckle he gave fell completely flat and sounded so forced that Felicity winced. He truly hated this whole act they had to put on. “So, we have a convincing cover story, according to Diggle. What are you comfortable with in a physical sense?”

Felicity shot him a confused look. “What do you mean?”

There was a slightly pink tinge to Oliver’s face as he explained, “If we’re meant to be in a soulmate relationship, we’re meant to do - you know, couple things. Holding hands, linking arms, hugging… kissing…”

“The first three I’m fine with,” she said hastily. “The last one - you kiss me on the cheek and forehead all the time, so that’s okay, but not on the lips.” Her brain might short-circuit and then she wouldn’t be useful at all during the mission.

“Right,” Oliver murmured. He was staring at the window again, turned away from her.

The car slowed down. “We’re here,” Diggle told them unnecessarily. “Good luck, you two.”

“See you on the other side, Dig,” Felicity said.

They clambered out of the car, Oliver’s hand hesitantly settling on Felicity’s lower back as they stood on the red-carpet covered pavement outside the hotel’s grand entrance. The eyes of all the surrounding couples being dropped off immediately flicked over to them, and Felicity shifted self-consciously when she heard some people begin to whisper curiously about them.

The archer’s hand slowly rose from her back to wind around her waist so he was holding her comfortably against his side, and with Oliver’s warm body pressing into hers, Felicity squared her shoulders and glanced up at him with a determined smile.

The two of them walked side by side towards the storm that awaited them inside the hotel, ready to face the crowds and the millions of questions people would no doubt have for them.

They might be fake soulmates in a fake relationship, but they were still best friends and partners first and foremost. Tonight, they would stand together and united.

* * *

If Oliver had to hear one more person passive aggressively wish him and Felicity a Merry Christmas even after they’d told them that Felicity was Jewish and celebrating Hanukkah, he was going to punch somebody in the face. He had no idea how Felicity was able to remain so calm and collected.

The pair hadn’t been challenged at entry to the gala; Oliver only had to hand over his invitation and introduce Felicity as his guest, soulmate and partner. But they were definitely challenged after. After two hours of having to walk around the grand ballroom, constantly plastered by questions from various CEOs, business-men and -women and high ranking members of society who had managed to score an invite to the Kord Industries gala, Oliver’s patience had worn thin.

He and Felicity had been forced to repeat their story about meeting each other and discovering they were soulmates at least a dozen times, and some obnoxious couples had even demanded to see proof in the form of their soulmarks. Luckily, nobody from QC or any of their investors were here to judge them even further; none of the rumors about Felicity sleeping with Oliver to get her position as his executive assistant had spread outside the company, so they didn’t receive any snide comments in that regard.

Nobody seemed to not believe their story. In fact, some people thought their ‘relationship’ was wonderful, and said they completely understood why they were keeping their ‘soulmate status’ a secret.

Oliver had adopted a permanent fake smile on his face as they strode around the ballroom despite the torture he was being forced through. He couldn’t imagine how Felicity felt. People eyed her with curiosity, suspicion, or blatant disregard. They were either treating her as if she was just a piece of meat on his arm, or the most interesting person on the planet, or acting as if she wasn’t worthy enough to have Oliver Queen as her soulmate, which was ridiculous to him - it was Oliver who didn’t deserve Felicity.

A point of contact had been maintained between them throughout the entire evening so far. If Oliver didn’t have his arm around Felicity’s waist, he was holding her hand, or resting it on her shoulder or back. It helped relax both of them, as it reassured them that they weren’t alone and had each other’s backs. Everybody else at the gala thought it was incredibly sweet.

“You two are adorable,” the CFO of Gregson Corp gushed over them, when they bumped into her with her soulmate while getting top-ups of champagne. “Everyone thinks the CEO and secretary relationship is so cliche, but you have such an obviously strong connection. It’s so inspiring. Merry Christmas.”

“Thank you,” Oliver gritted out with a forced smile. “Happy Holidays to you as well.” Once they’d walked away, he turned to Felicity and whispered fiercely, “Would you be opposed if I shot arrows into any of these people?”

“I’ve been collating a hitlist for you,” Felicity murmured in response.

“Well, since nobody else will say it…” The archer leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek, “Happy Hanukkah, Felicity.” Their gazes met for a moment and Oliver softened and felt the tension draining out of him, as she gave him a small, shy smile.

“Mr Queen! Mr Queen! Miss Smoak!” Oliver growled under his breath and shielded Felicity behind him as one of the event reporters along with one of the photographers rushed up to them. “Could we potentially get an interview please? And some photos?”

“We’ve already sold our exclusive, thank you, Mr Taylor,” the archer said in such a brutally polite voice that the reporter, photographer, and Felicity all startled. “And I thought you were told by Kord Industries’ PR director that this event was non-interview?”

“Then photographs?” Mr Taylor asked hopefully. “They all go to KI’s PR for review before publishing, and printed copies will be available tomorrow morning.”

Oliver shot Felicity a questioning look.

“Photographs would be nice,” she whispered. He couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking, which was frustrating.

They posed for a couple of pictures, Oliver standing with his back straight and arm around Felicity’s waist; they contorted their faces into too-wide, too-happy smiles for the camera in such a way that the archer wondered why they’d agreed to do this in the first place when the only emotions they’d feel looking at these photos of them in the future were regretful, sad and irritated ones. As the photos were being taken, however, somebody shoved past them from behind. Oliver, being able to anticipate the impact, braced himself against the man’s weight, but Felicity yelped and stumbled, falling forwards.

Reacting on instinct, Oliver lunged forwards and swept her into his arms, bending over to catch her. Felicity’s arms flew up so her hands could link behind his neck, her weight sinking into his grasp. Their faces were so close their noses were almost touching. Oliver swallowed nervously, squashing down the flare of arousal he felt deep within his abdomen and even lower down as he stared into her eyes, which were stunningly blue and filled with shock but also admiration that he’d been able to stop her tumbling gracelessly to the ground.

Before he could become completely lost within her gaze, Oliver snapped to attention when he heard the click of the camera. The photographer was taking photos of them in that position while Mr Taylor watched with a smug, delighted expression. Clearing his throat, Oliver helped Felicity back to her feet, his hands remaining on her hips to make sure she was steady before he reluctantly pulled away from her.

“Thanks,” Felicity breathed.

“Whoever pushed you owes you an apology,” Oliver said, bristling with anger. “You could have been seriously hurt.”

Felicity shook her head. “It was just a small shove, Oliver. It’s fine. You caught me.”

“And it made for an incredible photo!” the photographer said. “I’ll be in reception during breakfast hours tomorrow morning if you’d like to purchase any prints.”

While the photographer walked off to find another unsuspecting soulmate couple to take pictures of, the reporter offered them one last comment before following after: “If I didn’t believe in soulmates, you two would convince me they truly exist.”

Oliver and Felicity were left with slightly flushed cheeks, exchanging sheepish and guilty glances. Although the archer knew there was a very high possibility that they were actually soulmates (he was almost 100% sure at this point, even without a proper soulmark match), they were still tricking all of these people into thinking they were a couple.

The worst part of it all was that Oliver was… kind of enjoying it? He enjoyed holding Felicity’s hand and wrapping his arm around her all the time. He actually liked telling people how they met and listening to them say that the two of them were ‘destined’ to fall for each other - that it was fate.

His heart ached every time he saw Felicity’s brittle smile. Each time he felt her flex her fingers stiffly within his grip and shift uncomfortably against his side, the boulder sitting heavily within Oliver’s chest became all the more suffocating. It didn’t matter that he liked faking a relationship with Felicity when she was obviously so unhappy with this. He was pretty sure she had some feelings for him, so maybe it was the whole ‘faking it’ aspect of this situation Felicity was upset by.

Oliver was startled out of his musings by Felicity tugging at his sleeve frantically, whispering, “Oliver, look. Jenkins is over there.”

He peered around to where she was trying to subtly point. The KI executive officer was talking to the director of R&D by the chocolate fountain in the corner of the large room. The man appeared noticeably sweaty and anxious. Oliver checked his watch. It was 10:10pm - thirty minutes until Jenkins would be meeting with members of the Triad.

The archer narrowed his eyes, running his gaze up and down Jenkins thoroughly; he couldn’t be hiding the cluster bombs on his person, could he? He must have an accomplice bringing the bombs in. He tensed at the idea of live and extremely dangerous explosives being brought into this hotel when there were so many innocent civilians at this Christmas gala.

“He’ll start moving in the next twenty minutes, I think,” he told Felicity quietly. “Do you want to go up to our suite to start sweeping the CCTV to find their meeting point? I’ll keep an eye on him and maybe tail him if he leaves. I’ll meet you in the room at 10:30 so you can give me the location and I can suit up.”

Felicity nodded and carefully slipped out of the ballroom, trying to remain unseen, but failing.

“Is Miss Smoak all right?” Mrs Hansworth, one of the senior executives of the Starling subsidiary of Wayne Industries, questioned Oliver, coming over with her soulmate, the head of Starling WI marketing.

“It’s the second night of Hanukkah and she’s calling her mother,” Oliver lied. “They usually celebrate together but her mom is stuck in Vegas because of work.”

“Ah, right,” Hansworth murmured.

Her soulmate looked confused. “If Miss Smoak is Jewish, why is she attending a Christmas party with you?” she asked.

“We respect both of our religions and support each other in our faiths.”

“That’s very sweet.”

The two women strode off, leaving Oliver standing alone. As they moved away, the archer noticed Jenkins making a sneaky exit from the ballroom, pulling out his cell phone on the way. Slowly placing his half-empty champagne flute down on the nearest table, Oliver followed the man out of the room at a distance as to not draw his attention. He was able to tail Jenkins as far as the elevators, at which point he was forced to hang back to avoid being spotted. He watched until the elevator stopped on Level -3, which was where the underground car park was located.

He headed up to his and Felicity’s suite after that. Their room was on the fourteenth floor - well, he said room. It was more of a kitchen-less, open plan apartment, to be honest. Oliver entered the space silently, loosening his red bow tie and casting his suit blazer aside onto the large leather couch in front of the flat screen TV. Oliver smiled when he caught sight of Felicity wearing a fluffy hotel robe over her dress, her laptop on her thighs as she sat atop the huge queen size bed in the center of the room.

“I saw Jenkins taking an elevator to the underground parking lot,” Oliver informed her. He began rummaging around in the single duffel bag they’d brought with them that had his Arrow suit, quiver and retractable bow inside, as well as a spare set of civilian clothes and sleeping clothes for both of them, just in case they ended up having to stay overnight. “You have CCTV access yet?”

“I had CCTV access in that ballroom on my cell phone,” Felicity replied, her voice deadpan. “And you’re right, they’re in that parking lot. A car with blacked out windows and an untraceable plate arrived just a minute ago.”

Oliver started stripping off, pulling on his green leather pants. He wasn’t all that concerned that he was doing it in front of Felicity considering that she’d watched him strip off a hundred times before when he’d changed in the Arrow cave. “That must be an accomplice of Jenkins’, bringing the bombs in. Alert me when the Triad arrives. Can you knock out CCTV so the Arrow can get down to that level without being seen or linked back to us?”

“I’ll disrupt the entire system so it looks like a hotel-wide failure and can’t be traced back to me,” Felicity said. “Very random change of subject, but the news got out that we’re soulmates and in a relationship, by the way.”

The archer paused, shirtless and reaching down to grab a plain black t-shirt to wear underneath the Arrow jacket. “It did?”

“Yep. Eliza Remton, who’s Harry Remton’s soulmate - Harry is the executive assistant of Kord Industries’ CBO - took a side picture of us and posted it on Facebook. It’s blurry but we’re definitely recognizable in it and her caption revealed us to have turned up together at a soulmate couples only event. We’re trending on Twitter right now. Your sister is being very vocal about it.”

“Oh no.” Oliver yanked out his cell phone. He’d switched it to silent when they’d arrived, which was why he’d missed Thea calling him fifteen times, and the hundreds of capslock texts she’d sent him.

“QC HR have emailed me,” Felicity told him solemnly. “They want to meet up with us on Monday morning to discuss it all.” She lowered her voice to a mutter, speaking to herself in a rather miserable tone, “I don’t even want to know what Isabitch Rochev is thinking.”

“We can’t deal with this now,” the archer exhaled.

“No, you’re right, we can’t,” she agreed. “Three very suspicious looking silver cars are driving into that parking lot right now. We can talk about how we’re going to address your sister and HR about our fake soulmate and relationship statuses later. The Arrow has an illegal weapons deal to break up.”

Oliver finished changing into the Arrow suit, strapping on his quiver and snapping out his retractable bow. “I’ll meet you back here by midnight. If I don’t get back by then and you don’t hear from me, run like hell. Call Dig and get him to extract you.”

“I’m not going to abandon you,” Felicity protested, her eyes wide with alarm.

“You might have to.” He peered at her laptop screen, that showed at least a dozen Triad thugs clambering out of the silver cars. All of them were armed to the teeth. “It’s going to transform into a bloodbath down there, Felicity. I don’t care that Lance will be arriving with the SCPD - they’ve proven they’re incompetent when it comes to dealing with the mob time and time again. One of those Triad men could easily get into the main part of this hotel and start shooting. I want you out of this hotel and safe, if I’m not out of there and back here in time to protect you if things turn bad.”

Felicity looked conflicted, but the stern expression of Oliver’s face caused her to slump in defeat. “I hate the idea of leaving you behind.”

“And I hate the idea of you being in danger,” he responded softly, flicking a stray strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. “Please don’t argue with me on this.”

She grumbled. “I’m not going to, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.” Oliver blinked in surprise when Felicity pulled him down by the edge of his hood to press a kiss against his cheek. “Good luck. Come back to me, please. I don’t want to be lighting my Hanukkiah and saying blessings tonight thinking there’s a possibility my best friend could be hurt or dead.”

Oliver chuckled lightly. “I promise.”

As he was heading out of the hotel room door, he stopped when he heard Felicity call out to him.

“You know, considering we’re faking being soulmates in a relationship… everybody thinks we’re amazing together,” she said. “We make a great team.”

“We’re partners,” Oliver replied simply, swallowing the lump in his throat. “That’s the one thing we never have to fake.”

The tattoo of the arrow with the infinity symbol in its shaft tingled on the back of his neck as the archer prepared himself for battle.

* * *

Although the underground parking lot did turn into a fight zone as Oliver had anticipated, he escaped relatively unharmed, much to Felicity’s relief. She shut down the rest of the hotel’s CCTV network so that the archer would have time to get out before security arrived, watching the confrontation between the Arrow and the Triad that resulted in many of them pinned to the walls with arrows, and Jenkins (who was bawling his eyes out) handcuffed to a pipe. The crate of cluster bombs had been secured to the ground with a net arrow, the green fletch sticking out tall and proud to alert the SCPD to the crate’s presence when they eventually arrived.

Felicity would be lying if she didn’t admit she always got very concerned about Oliver whenever he was in the field. She knew he could handle himself but that didn’t mean she couldn’t worry about him. Her heart had seized in her chest every time a Triad bullet skimmed past his body; she was certain he’d been nicked by a couple of them on the arms, but any tears or rips on his jacket would reveal how close those calls had been. Now she was just waiting for Oliver to come back. The gunfire on the lower levels meant that hotel security was swarming and the elevators had actually been stopped on the reception floor. Security had blocked off the stairwells, so Oliver was going to have to use another path to get back to her.

When he finally entered through the hotel room door, Felicity felt the weight on her shoulders lifting. She jumped off the bed and approached him, resisting the urge to yank him into a relieved embrace.

“Lance is five minutes out,” she relayed to him. “CCTV will go back online in time for the SCPD’s arrival.”

Oliver nodded in acknowledgment, hiding his bow and quiver back in the duffel bag and pulling out civilian clothes. “I ran into security before I started scaling the elevator shafts. It wouldn’t surprise me if they checked on everybody present at the gala and placed the hotel into lockdown. We’ll probably have to spend the night here.”

“Lucky we brought pajamas and clothes then,” Felicity smiled. But the grin swiftly dropped off her face when she saw him wince as he bent over to yank off his boots. “Were you hit?”

“No,” Oliver reassured her, quickly shedding the Arrow jacket and pants in don of a pair of sweatpants and a fresh t-shirt. “Just got clipped on my right arm. Barely a scratch.”

He was lying. The archer had a tell, where his eyes would flicker to the floor when he wasn’t telling the truth. He was addressing the carpet right now. “Show me.”

“It’s okay -”

“Let me see!” Felicity demanded.

She raised her chin slightly in triumph when Oliver just sighed and collapsed down on the end of the queen sized bed, rolling his right t-shirt sleeve up to reveal a shallow graze across his upper bicep. It was definitely more than a scratch - dark red blood had already crusted around the wound - but it wasn’t serious enough to need stitches. Shaking her head, Felicity rummaged around in the duffel bag until she found the small emergency first aid kit she’d packed just for instances like this. She could feel the archer’s warm gaze on her back as she fished out gauze, antiseptic and bandages. Oliver continued to watch her with a softened expression as she sat next to him on the bed and carefully tended to the scrape on his arm.

The hotel room phone rang. Felicity leaned back so Oliver could reach across her to grab it, continuing to clean out the cut with an antiseptic doused gauze square as he spoke to reception hushedly.

“They were just checking we were safe,” he told her, once he’d hung up. “They’re asking everybody in the hotel to stay in their suites and keep the doors locked until nine tomorrow morning so the SCPD and security can secure the building. We might be chosen to give statements to the police about the disturbance.”

“Lance knows we’re here so he’ll steer them away from us,” Felicity hummed, frowning in concentration as she attached a bandage around his bicep. “He thinks you’re accompanying me as a favor to the Arrow. How the detective still hasn’t realized who you are since starting to work with Team Arrow is an absolute mystery to me.”

Oliver shrugged, barely suppressing his wince as he jolted his injured arm. “I reckon he does know, but doesn’t want to admit to anything. Plausible deniability. I got your Hanukkiah out and placed it by the window, by the way. I know you missed lighting it earlier because we were at the gala during nightfall, but I thought we could do it now, before midnight? Reception is going to bring up a packet of matches; I forgot to pack some.”

Her eyes widened. “You didn’t have to ask them to do that.”

“After enduring that horrific Christmas gala for me, it was the least I could do. You should still be able to celebrate the second night of Hanukkah. I, uh…” There was a noticeable red tinge to his cheeks. “I’ve never celebrated before, obviously -”

“Obviously,” Felicity echoed.

“But I thought I could… help you? Celebrate with you?” Oliver shook his head, looking thoroughly embarrassed now. “It was a stupid idea. I’m sorry.”

“No! No, that’s - that’s really sweet, Oliver,” she answered. She was touched, to be honest. He didn’t have to offer to do all this for her. “I’d love you to celebrate with me.”

Seeing as they were stuck in the room overnight, Felicity retreated to the bathroom to change out of her dress into her dreidel patterned pajamas, which caused Oliver’s face to break out into a brilliant, amused smile. He’d shoved the duffel bag under the bed so it couldn’t be seen and plugged her laptop and cell phone in to charge, and was now leaning against the bed’s headboard, flicking through his own phone messages. The grimace as he read them made Felicity raise an eyebrow.

“Your mother?” she asked, dread pooling in her gut.

“No. No contact from her yet. It’s Thea. She isn’t very happy with us,” he reported.

“Oh no.”

“She wants to know why I didn’t tell her that I’d found my soulmate sooner. And why dozens of businessmen we don’t know the names of and the press got to find out we’re a couple before she did.”

“What are you going to tell her?” Felicity asked, lacing her fingers through her loose hair. The younger Queen sibling scared her slightly. She and Thea had only met a couple of times - once before the Undertaking, when she’d visited Walter with Oliver in the hospital, and twice as Oliver’s executive assistant when she’d arranged lunch dates for the two of them. Thea liked her, as far as Felicity could tell, but she was anxious to know how Oliver’s sister was receiving the news of her brother having a (fake) soulmate.

The archer sighed. “I’ve told her I’ll explain over brunch on Sunday. Is that okay with you?”

Felicity froze. “Oh. You want me to come?”

“Thea wants to meet the girl who has, in her words, ‘captured my heart’.”

“This is all fake though,” Felicity said. “She wouldn’t actually be meeting your real soulmate.”

Oliver looked uncomfortable and his voice was tight as he asked, “Do you want to come to brunch with us, yes or no, Felicity.”

She’d upset him somehow. He wasn’t usually so cold with her. “You wouldn’t survive against your sister without some form of backup,” she attempted to tease him. “And you’re an awful liar so if we’re keeping up this soulmate couple pretense, you’ll need me by your side.”

But Oliver didn’t smile. There was a deep sadness in his eyes that Felicity didn’t know how to react or respond to. Luckily, there was a knock on the door at that point, interrupting their conversation. Somebody from housekeeping handed over a small pack of matches, an extra pillow, and an extra blanket, that Oliver must have asked for.

“We should start lighting my Hanukkiah,” Felicity announced, after dumping the pillow and blanket on the couch. “Do you want me to teach you the blessings?”

Oliver nodded. “Yes please.”

They headed over to the window together, where the Hanukkiah had been set. “Everybody has their own Hanukkah traditions and ways. I’m going to show you how the Smoak family has always done it. First, we place the candles from the right to the left. My family has always only placed the candles we use on the night, so tonight, I’m placing in the first and second candles.” She shuffled to the side so Oliver could see what she was doing. She smiled when she spotted his intrigued expression. “Then we place the shamash. This is the candle we use to light all the other candles so we light it first. In my family, we say the first blessing when we light the shamash.”

“The blessings are in Hebrew?” Oliver asked quietly.

“Yes. I’m sort of semi-fluent. My mother is as well. My grandparents spoke Hebrew as their first language.” After placing all the candles, Felicity struck a match, cautiously lighting the shamash. “ _Baruch ata Ado-noi Elo-heinu melech ha-olam, Asher kid-shanu bi-mitzvo-sav, Vi-tzee-vanu li-had-leek ner shel Chanukah._ ” Once the wick had caught in an amber flame, she blew the match out.

The archer’s eyes were almost round with awe. “What does that mean?”

“The closest English translation is, ‘Blessed are You, the Lord our God, King of the universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah light.’.”

“Because Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights.”

“Right,” Felicity confirmed. “Now I’m going to say the second blessing before lighting the other candles, from the left to the right. Some people say it after lighting but our family’s always said it before. _Baruch ata Ado-noi Elo-heinu melech ha-olam, Shi-asa nee-seem la-avo-seinu, Baya-meem ha-haim baz-man ha-zeh._ That means, ‘Blessed are You, the Lord our God, King of the universe, Who made miracles for our forefathers, in those days at this season.’. There’s a third blessing as well, but we only say it on the first night.” Hesitating slightly, she offered, “If you want, you can light the second candle.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Oliver immediately protested, stepping back.

“It’s all right. I’d like it if you did.” She used the shamash to light the first candle, and then handed it over to the archer so he could light the second. Once they were both flickering with fire, Felicity recited a long paragraph blessing in Yiddish about the sacredness of the lights and expressing thanks for the wonders and miracles of the world. “Now we leave the candles to burn for at least half an hour and enjoy looking at them. Normally, if I were with other members of my family, we would sing the song _Maoz Tzur_ , but it’s really old Hebrew and I’m not that fluent enough to remember all of it.”

“Your blessings are wonderful,” Oliver murmured.

“I’ll tell you what’s wonderful - my Bubbe’s _sufganiyot_ ” Felicity told him, taking a seat on the bed with a wistful sigh as she remembered warm evenings spent with her grandparents over the holidays when she was a child. “They’re fried jelly donuts… amazing. I could eat a whole dozen of them by myself. I’d feel so sick by the end of the night though that I would have to concede when we were playing with the dreidels. I wish I’d brought one for us to play with.”

Oliver sat down beside her. “Thank you for teaching me about your traditions,” he whispered, leaning in to brush his lips against the side of her head in a kiss. 

“You’ll have to teach me about your Christmas ones,” she said, curling up and hugging one of the pillows to her chest. “How does the Queen family celebrate the holidays?”

Getting comfortable next to her, Oliver propped his head on his hand and his elbow on his knees. “Well, we always have a Christmas party of some kind and invite all our friends and family. On Christmas Eve, we make Christmas brownies and when Thea and I were kids, we were always allowed to open a small gift after family dinner. And this is going to seem like a weird one - we’d always watch Jurassic Park on Christmas Eve.”

Felicity laughed. “Jurassic Park? Really?”

“My dad loved that movie. It used to give Thea and me nightmares when we were younger but after watching it every year, we grew to love it.” The sad smile on Oliver’s face as he thought about his deceased father was heartbreaking. “We didn’t get a chance to watch it last year. I think it’s been six years since anybody from our family watched Jurassic Park.”

“You should definitely watch it this year, then.”

“Yeah. On Christmas morning, we’d open up our stockings before a full English breakfast and then we’d wait for our grandparents to arrive before opening any presents. We’d skip out on lunch and have a huge Christmas dinner mid-afternoon. My grandfather used to bring spiced dark rum that tasted like the richest toffee and once you were fourteen years old, he determined you old enough to stomach it. I’ll always remember when Tommy and I first tasted it. I and pretended to swallow it while Tommy downed a whole shot. He went completely red and choked for a full ten minutes.” He chuckled softly to himself. “Tommy was so mad when he found out I cheated.” If possible, Oliver’s sadness only intensified when he added, “I never got to see Thea try her first glass. I was on the island. I wonder if she even got to try it, considering she and Mom didn’t really celebrate Christmas for those five years.”

Felicity reached out and gently took hold of his hand. “You’ll have to ask her.”

He nodded, his gaze lowered.

“Considering Thea and everybody else thinks that we’re soulmates, I suppose I’ll be celebrating Christmas with you this year,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “I’m sure your Mom and sister will be _thrilled_ about that.”

Oliver frowned. “My mother does respect you, despite whatever impression she’s given you. Thea likes you. Both of them were devastated when they found out my soulmark had been destroyed on Lian Yu because they thought that meant I’d never find my soulmate… they know you and they know I trust and care about you, so I can’t imagine they’ll have any problem with us being soulmates.”

“Oh, they’ll definitely have a problem when we split up, or if they find out this was all a ruse,” Felicity shook her head. “And the soulmark story is not gonna cut it for them if they know your real mark was burnt off. They’ll know something is up.”

“Then I tell them I got the tattoo to stop people asking questions.”

“But they’ll have seen your old soulmark,” Felicity emphasized, anxiety washing over her again, quickly followed by panic when she realized, “They’ll easily be able to work out this is all fake once they see that your old soulmark and mine don’t match. What are we going to do, Oliver?”

To her shock, the archer appeared completely calm. “We can worry about that tomorrow, Felicity.”

“But Oliver -”

“It’s been thirty minutes and it’s getting late,” he cut her off. “We should blow out the candles and try and get some sleep.”

“There’s only one bed,” Felicity pointed out.

“You can take it. I asked for the extra pillow and blanket so I can sleep on the floor.”

Felicity stared at him in disbelief. Oliver seriously thought she was going to make him sleep on the floor? Sure, the carpet was soft, but he would undoubtedly end up with a very sore back tomorrow morning. “The bed’s queen size, it will easily be able to fit both of us. We’re adults - we’re best friends - we can share the bed.”

Oliver averted his gaze. “I don’t want to make things uncomfortable for you.”

“Well, I don’t want to make things uncomfortable for you by having you sleep on the floor. It’s fine, Oliver. I don’t mind sharing the bed with you.”

“Are you sure?” he asked warily.

“Absolutely.” Felicity rose to snuff out the Hanukkiah's candles and when she turned back around, the archer had switched on the bedside lamp and turned the main lights off, bathing the bedroom in a soft, dim glow. He was standing uneasily at the end of the bed, waiting for her. “What side of the bed do you want?”

“Um, the side by the door,” he answered, suddenly seeming shy.

“So the right side. I usually sleep on the left anyway, so that works. I know you like a cooler temperature so do you want to change the thermostat?”

“It’s okay, I can just sleep on top of the comforter.”

Felicity went and turned the thermostat temperature down anyway, because she knew Oliver would still get too hot even without blankets over him, especially as he usually slept shirtless, but he was sleeping with a t-shirt on tonight. Oliver’s lips ticked up into a small smile and he thanked her quietly. After that, the two of them clambered into the bed together. Oliver switched off the lamp as she wiggled around to find a suitable position. They lay side by side in silence for a few minutes, Felicity remaining stiff on her back while Oliver was equally tense.

“This is stupid,” she huffed. She swiveled around so she was lying on her side. Oliver’s silhouette was just barely visible in the black.

Oliver snorted a quiet laugh and slowly turned onto his side as well so they were facing each other in the darkness. “What is? Us sharing a bed?”

“No. The both of us being so weird about it. I feel like we’re sharing a coffin rather than a bed. We’re friends and partners, this shouldn’t be awkward.”

“I’m… a little worried about having a nightmare and hurting you during the night,” Oliver admitted in a hushed voice.

That explained why he was so rigid. “If you wake me up by talking in your sleep or thrashing around, and it looks like you’re having a Lian Yu nightmare, I’ll get out of the bed and stay in the bathroom until you wake up.”

He exhaled in relief. “Thank you.”

Quietness settled around them again. Felicity found her thoughts straying back towards Thea and Moira, and the many questions the Queen’s would have for her and Oliver about their falsified soulmate and couple status. “You know, even if soulmarks weren’t in the equation, your mom and sister would probably work out that this is all fake. I mean - you and me, as an item… talk about unthinkable.”

Oliver didn’t respond.

“I mean, I’m me and you’re… you,” Felicity carried on hastily. “It would just - never work out, right?”

There was a beat of frigid silence and then Oliver finally responded, sounding so utterly defeated that Felicity’s heart clenched, “Right.”

She didn’t know what she could say that could possibly make him feel better, because she didn’t know how exactly she’d upset him. Oliver couldn’t be sad about what she’d said about them as a couple being impossible; it was just a given fact that he was way, way out of her league and there was no chance of them getting together because 1. Oliver didn’t think he could be the Arrow and be in a relationship and 2. Why would he ever be interested in somebody like her?

Felicity drifted off to sleep after that, twisting over onto her other side as her eyes fluttered closed and her mind slowly blanked.

Just as she was about to fall into unconsciousness, she felt Oliver’s fingertips brush over her soulmark on her shoulder, and heard him whisper, “I wish I was brave enough to tell you the truth.” 

The truth?

What was Oliver talking about?

The darkness of slumber enveloped Felicity before she could begin to reflect.

* * *

Oliver could tell Felicity was worried about him over breakfast the next morning. They were sitting opposite each other at a table for two in the hotel’s salon, sipping coffee, spreading jelly over toast and picking at chopped fresh fruit, and the tension between them was palpable. Felicity was rambling about a call she’d received from her mother that morning about the social media storm that had erupted with the news that she and Oliver were soulmates and in a relationship while the archer half-listened to her, tugging at a single loose thread on his serviette.

He was such a coward. He should have told Felicity about them actually being real soulmates last night, but he didn’t have the courage to after her incessant repeating that their soulmate status was fake - and especially not after she had made that comment about a relationship between them being unthinkable. Oliver had felt like his heart was being carved out of his chest when she’d said that. Because he’d spent the last two nights imagining what it would be like to be her boyfriend and romantic partner, thinking about dates he could possibly take her on and safety measures he could put in place to make sure she would never get hurt, and then Felicity had thrown that in his face.

They couldn’t be together. _I’m me and you’re… you._ Oliver was damaged. It wasn’t what Felicity had meant to imply, but that was what the archer had immediately thought about. He was mentally scarred, and he was undesirable. He had been an idiot to think that them being real soulmates could result in anything more than their close friendship becoming awkward and stilted.

Diggle picked them up after they checked out of the hotel. The SCPD hadn’t needed Oliver and Felicity to give statements and Lance had actually been in reception when they’d made their exit, nodding respectfully towards Felicity and side-eyeing Oliver intensely. Thankfully the pick-up section of the hotel front was under cover and cordoned off by security, as dozens of reporters and photographs instantly swarmed the car as they pulled out into the street.

“I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve got since last night asking about ‘Olicity’,” Diggle told them, sounding amused.

“‘Olicity’?” Oliver echoed confusedly.

Felicity, however, understood, and turned to him to sheepishly explain, “It’s our ship name. I checked Twitter this morning… it’s the term people are using to describe the relationship between us.”

“And it’s trending,” Diggle added. “You two pulled off the soulmate gig too well. Everybody is loving this story. CEO hires his best friend from the IT department to be his assistant because she’s the only person he trusts, they discover they’re soulmates and keep their relationship a secret to avoid judgment from the press… the world is obsessed.”

Oliver grimaced. They couldn’t have people interested in his and Felicity’s non-existent relationship and soulmate status; if they were being stalked by reporters, it would make Arrow-work a hundred times more difficult. They couldn’t very well try and sneak out from QC to go to the Foundry if the media were watching their every move.

“Your mother called me, by the way,” Diggle said casually.

Oliver glanced up and winced when Felicity full on flinched beside him. “She didn’t contact me and has been ignoring my texts and refusing my calls,” he said. “What did she say to you?”

“She asked how long you two have known you were soulmates, when you got together romantically and how long I’ve known,” Diggle said.

“And what did you tell her?”

“That I would deliver you home to answer as many questions as she wants to ask you.”

“Wow,” Felicity deadpanned. “Throwing Oliver under the bus, then?”

“Hey, it’s _his_ mother.”

They dropped Felicity off at her apartment. As soon as the door was closed and Felicity was safely seen into her apartment building, Diggle whipped around with a serious expression and questioned, “Did you tell her?”

“What do you think?” Oliver snapped.

“So that’s a no.” Diggle paused. “Are you going to?”

“Felicity said the two of us being an item is unthinkable,” the archer told him hollowly.

Diggle shot him a sympathetic look. “Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

“I doubt she actually meant it.”

Oliver stared out the window. “Sure.”

“Even if she does think that, you should still tell her. She has a right to know.”

“I know,” he answered quietly.

“Don’t lose hope, Oliver.”

He nodded. Hope was something that Felicity had reintroduced to his life after he’d arrived back in Starling after his five years away, and he wasn’t about to give up on it now. Oliver was planning on heading over to Felicity’s apartment to see her later on in the evening, before nightfall, so that he could help her celebrate the third night of Hanukkah… and tell her about them being soulmates.

It was time to step out of the shadows and into the light, by Felicity’s side.

The drive back to Queen mansion felt like a descent towards hell for the archer. His mother and sister were probably waiting for him to arrive home so they could lay into him. He would be lucky to be free of their questions and demands for information by the New Year. Just as he’d predicted, Moira and Thea were standing on the porch steps when they crawled up the driveway. Diggle wished him good luck but was struggling to hide his grin as Oliver climbed out, shooting him a glare.

“You have a lot to explain, Oliver Jonas Queen,” was his mother’s greeting.

“And I will tell you everything, as long as we go inside first.”

Thea huffed, her arms folded over her chest. “You better.”

His mother and sister waited patiently until they were all seated in the living room before exploding at him.

“So you and Miss Smoak are soulmates,” Moira started.

“Yes, we are.”

“How do you know?” Thea challenged. “Your soulmark was burnt off. There’s no possible way for you to compare.”

“There are pictures of me from before the island that show my soulmark,” he said simply. “Trust me, Thea, our marks match. We haven’t had them properly compared by an evaluator or using a digital mark comparing programme, but we didn’t deem it necessary. Our marks are the same.”

“Have you got a photo of Miss Smoak’s?” his mother asked.

Oliver pulled the photo up on his cell phone, as his mother revealed a photo she’d hidden under the large ornamental bowl on the coffee table. The archer’s eyes widened as he took it in. It was a much older and clearer photo than the one he’d found, showing Oliver as a child of barely six or seven years standing in a paddling pool. His soulmark was incredibly defined. Moira spent a good minute or so glancing between the photo of Oliver and the image of Felicity’s soulmark.

“You’re right,” she said, resigned. “You and Felicity do have matching soulmarks. When did you realize this? When did you find out that you’re soulmates?”

Oliver opened his mouth to lie, but Thea cut him off. “Actually, I don’t think I need him to answer that. I think I already know.” She turned to Oliver with a shrewd look. “It was the day of Mom’s trial, wasn’t it? You ran off before the jury announced she was acquitted - because Felicity had been attacked by the Count at QC, and rescued by the Arrow. You went to check whether she was okay but you didn’t come home that night. The next morning, when you finally came back, you were different. You seemed lighter and you were happier. That has to be when you found out.”

In reality, he’d been lighter and happier because he’d felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders - Oliver had killed the Count without guilt or regret about breaking his promise to Tommy because he’d saved Felicity. He’d then told her he was going home, but instead watched over the blonde while she’d slept in the Foundry because she was too scared to go home. The next morning, he’d finally told himself that it was all right to kill in self-defense and in the defense of those he loved, if there was no other option. He wasn’t shitting on Tommy’s memory by doing that, because Tommy would never have wanted Oliver to let somebody he loved get hurt when he could have stopped it from happening.

“Yes, that was when we found out,” he lied to Thea. “We decided then not to tell anybody. We began dating in secret. Diggle only found out because he was the one helping us sneak around. The story you read on social media about how we discovered we were soulmates isn’t true - we didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that Felicity had been rescued by the Arrow.”

“Because people would begin wrongly connecting you and the vigilante again,” Moira finished. He inclined his head in confirmation. “Why keep it a secret from Thea and me?”

“Felicity and I wanted a chance to enjoy our relationship in private before letting others know. It wasn’t that we didn’t want you two to know - we did - but we were partly worried about how you would react.”

“So it has nothing to do with the fact that Felicity is terrified of Mom?” Thea quirked an eyebrow.

“That too,” Oliver grinned sheepishly. “Mostly, it came down to judgment, though. We hate that stupid cliche about the CEO falling in love with his secretary - and we hate how much we fall into it. People at QC already think Felicity got her job as my executive assistant on her knees, and that’s not what happened at all. We didn’t want to feed into that horrible rumor. But we were both concerned that you might believe it if you found out we were together.”

“So what changed?” Moira asked sharply. “You revealed yourselves last night.”

“We were tired of having to hide,” he shrugged, lying again. “It was a private soulmate couples only event that was meant to have controlled press and media release… nothing was meant to get out onto social media without our say-so. We were going to use the photos of us from the Christmas gala in the QC press release we were planning.” He looked between his mother and sister with a softened expression, trying to console them as he continued, “Felicity and I honestly were planning on telling you both about us before the press release. We were planning on telling all of our friends and family. Eliza Remton ruined all of that.”

Thea sniffed. “Well, that does make me feel _slightly_ better.”

Oliver grasped his sister’s hand, squeezing it. “I’m sorry you found out this way.” He smiled weakly at his mother. “You too, Mom.”

“We’ll need to have Miss Smoak over for dinner next week,” his mother said. “Thea and I hardly know her, and we can’t allow that to stand if she’s going to be a Queen.”

“Hey, whoa.” Oliver sat back, alarmed. “Nobody said anything about that. Felicity and I might be soulmates but that doesn’t mean we’re automatically going to be getting married.”

Moira narrowed her eyes. “Hmm,” was all she responded with.

“Now if you’ll excuse me.” The archer heaved himself to his feet, brushing himself down. “I need to go and talk to Raisa about making some fried jelly donuts for Felicity so she can celebrate Hanukkah with them tonight.”

“You’re celebrating Hanukkah with her?” Thea blinked.

“She taught me the Hebrew blessings last night.”

“Okay, that’s… pretty adorable. But don’t think that means you get out of your interrogation!” his sister threatened. “Mom and I still have a million questions for you!”

“But you’re not against Felicity and I being a soulmate couple?” he asked. Of course, they weren’t a couple at the moment, but if they ever did end up together, he would want his family’s approval.

“No, Oliver,” his mother said. “If Felicity makes you happy, then I’m happy.”

He bent over to press a kiss to each of Moira’s cheeks. “Thanks, Mom. Could I have that photograph, by any chance?” She passed it over and he folded it, tucking it into his pocket. Oliver leaned to the side to peer over at Thea. “And you?”

“You said something about fried jelly donuts?”

“Hanukkah staple, according to Felicity.”

“Save me a couple, and I’ll reserve judgment until brunch tomorrow.”

“Stop teasing your brother, Thea,” Moira admonished.

Thea rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. I like Felicity, you already know that, and I’m really glad that out of everybody on the entire planet, she’s the one who’s your soulmate.”

Oliver left the living room in search of Raisa and the kitchens with the faintest trace of a smile on his face.

* * *

It was nearing nightfall and Felicity was preparing to light her Hanukkiah for the third day of Hanukkah when her doorbell rung. Frowning, she checked her phone for the time, wondering who exactly could be calling this late in the evening. She called out that she would be coming and quickly dashed into her bedroom to pull on a sweater, seeing as she was dressed in sweatpants and a vest.

She’d spent most of the morning napping after her and Oliver’s exhausting and rather late night at the hotel, and then the afternoon working on coding a new algorithm to automatically sweep the SCPD servers for incoming reinforcement requests. She’d deleted all her social media accounts off her cell phone after getting so many notifications, it froze several times. Fortunately, nobody from the press had worked out where she lived, so she was left in relative peace.

Peering through the peek-hole warily, Felicity emitted a soft noise of astonishment when she saw Oliver standing outside with a basket in his arms. Opening the door up, she stood in front of him, blinking. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Oliver breathed. He immediately offered the basket. “Happy Hanukkah.”

Taken back, Felicity cautiously lifted the cloth covering the basket and gasped. “You… got me _sufganiyot_?”

“Made them, actually. With Raisa’s help of course. They’ve got raspberry jelly in them.”

Felicity didn’t know what to say. She certainly had never expected the Arrow himself to turn up at her apartment with fried jelly donuts, yet here he was. So instead she asked the first question that popped into her head: “What are you doing here?” Her eyes slammed shut. “That came out wrong. Much ruder than I was intending. I just…”

“I… thought I could come help you celebrate the third night of Hanukkah,” Oliver said, rubbing the back of his neck. “And… we need to talk.”

“Talk?”

“I have something to tell you,” he iterated. He shifted on his feet nervously. “Can I come in?”

“OH! Yes, of course.” She stepped aside to allow him in, and as he moved past her, she realized he was alone. “No Diggle?”

“I came on my bike. We, uh… kind of need to be alone for this conversation.”

Felicity tried not to show how anxious and confused she was about this situation, just nodding and saying, “Right.”

Oliver was seated on the edge of her couch by the time she’d closed the door and locked it. He watched her like a falcon eyeing his prey as Felicity placed the basket of donuts down on the table, next to her Hanukkiah and the waiting box of matches to light the shamash. His attention was solely fixed on her and he didn’t seem to care about the decoration or state of her apartment, which was a good thing, considering it was currently a mess.

“How’d it go at home?” Felicity asked, sitting next to him.

“I had a talk with Mom and Thea,” he exhaled. “They’re… happy for us.”

“They didn’t realize that it was all fake?” she asked, surprised.

And again, that tortured expression passed over Oliver’s face. He glanced away, clenching his jaw. She’d said something wrong - again. She was beginning to recognize that he always shut off whenever she brought up the fakeness of the soulmate status. Felicity was about to ask what it was they needed to talk about that had caused him to come over when the archer reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and a folded old photograph.

“I’m not letting myself put this off any longer,” he muttered fiercely, apparently to himself. “I have to tell you. You deserve to know.”

She swallowed. “Know what?”

He flicked through the photos on his cell phone, before handing it over to her with the picture he’d taken of her soulmark on the screen. “This is your soulmark. An arrow with an infinity symbol in the shaft.”

“I know,” Felicity said, looking up at him in bemusement. “I was born with it.”

“I wasn’t born with mine. And I didn’t care about it when I was a kid - I cared even less when I was a teenager. I paid so little attention to my mark that by the time I lost it when it was burnt off, I could barely remember what it looked like. Seeing your mark triggered me to remember.” He passed over the photograph. “This is me as a child.”

Felicity unfolded it slowly and stared down at the image. Almost instantly, her mind flashed out into white. She raised a shaking hand to trace the soulmark on child Oliver’s lower back.

The soulmark that was an exact match to hers.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, barely believing what she was seeing.

“We’re soulmates, Felicity,” Oliver informed her, his voice grave and serious. “I’ve known for two days now but I was too scared to tell you. Too much of a coward. But like I said earlier, you deserve to know. I’m sorry I took so long to tell you.”

She was trembling all over, in absolute shock when she met his eyes. She didn’t know what he saw in hers - astonishment, definitely. Disbelief, probably. Fear? Maybe. In his eyes, she saw tiredness, pain, and resignation. As if he was just waiting for her to reject him.

“So what you’re saying is that by faking being each other’s soulmates… we somehow discovered that we are _actually soulmates_.” It was hard to accept that this all was real. Felicity pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “That’s why you looked as if I was kicking you in the stomach every time I emphasized how it was all fake. Because you knew the truth.”

“And now you do as well.” Oliver gently placed his hand on top of hers, which was resting on her knee. “This doesn’t have to change anything, Felicity.”

“Are you kidding?” she laughed rather hysterically. “This changes _everything_ , Oliver.”

“We’re still partners. We’re still best friends.”

“We’re soulmates!” she shouted, anger exploding in her. How could Oliver act as if this was nothing? As if this was just finding out they’d accidentally shared a toothbrush rather than that they supposedly shared a soul. “That means we’re destined to be together, Oliver, that the fates believe that the two of us…” She trailed off, a lump in her throat.

“I know,” he said solemnly. “And I know how I feel about you, Felicity.”

“You do?” she whispered.

“I’m not the best at acknowledging my emotions but I know precisely how much I care about you.”

“And how much is that?”

“Probably more than a human being should care for another human being,” Oliver admitted, his voice soft.

Felicity inhaled with a stutter. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that us being real soulmates makes sense to me because it confirms what I’ve known for a long time, but struggled to understand.” The sincerity in Oliver’s tone was breathtaking. “Felicity, I love you. And not just as a friend. I’m in love with you.”

She stared at him. “I’d be convinced this is a dream if I hadn’t just pinched myself.”

“I don’t expect you to feel the same way - or tell me how you feel,” the archer looked down at the floor. “I just… it isn’t fair for either of us to ignore our emotions. If I’ve upset you, or angered you, I’ll leave right now, you only have to ask. If you never want to see me again -”

“Shut up,” she interrupted him.

His mouth twitched. “What?”

Felicity placed her hands on his shoulders, stopping him from standing, as he was moving to do. “Shut up, you big dumb pine tree. Of _course_ , I feel the same way you do. I’ve always cared about you and I’ve always loved you, I’ve just never known that you loved me back. I’m not upset, or mad - I’m just having a really hard time processing all this right now because I’m in shock. Do you know how many times I’ve wondered about whether or not we’re soulmates? I thought it wasn’t possible after I found out your mark had been burnt off. This… this is…”

“A surprise?” he offered.

“A fucking miracle,” she completed.

He laughed, his blue eyes twinkling. “A Christmas miracle?”

“Hey.” She thumped him on the chest. “A Hanukkah miracle.”

The archer grazed the pad of his thumb over her cheek and Felicity struggled to maintain an impassive expression when she noticed how his eyes flickered down to her lips briefly. “I don’t normally believe in miracles.”

His sentence sounded unfinished. “But?” she prompted.

“But I believe in them when it comes to you.”

Oliver captured her lips in a searing kiss as one of his hands cradled her head and the other wound around her waist. Felicity wrapped her arm around his neck, sinking into his embrace with pleasure. Her entire body tingled with the simultaneous sense of floating and falling, heat rising within her until she felt as if a flame was burning inside of her chest, drawing the oxygen from her lungs and making her breathless. His hands moved forward smoothly until he was cupping her face, and then Oliver pulled away reluctantly with a soft, ragged sound.

Her head spun. “Wow,” she murmured.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he mumbled, dropping his head to rest against her shoulder.

“If it’s for as long as I’ve wanted to kiss you, then I could probably make a good estimate.” Her heart seized as she remembered what he’d said to her in his office when they’d arrived back from Russia, after rescuing Lyla and Oliver had made one of his more unsavory decisions. “Should we be doing this? You said before that you think it’s better for you not to be with somebody you really care about.”

“Oliver from a month ago was being a -” He grinned. “What was it you called me a minute ago? A… pine tree?”

“A big dumb pine tree.”

“Yeah, that Oliver was being a big dumb pine tree,” the archer determined. “That Oliver was scared that loving somebody would make him weak and vulnerable. I know for a fact that loving you has made me stronger and a much better person.” He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “I have something else to tell you.”

“I’m glad I’m sitting down. If I were standing, I would have definitely fallen down by now because of all these mind-blowing revelations.”

He laughed lightly. “This one’s not so much as a revelation. It’s just sort of telling you the rest of a half-truth I’ve already given you.” He turned around so his back was to her, pulling down his collar to expose the tattoo of her soulmark. “I found out about us being soulmates just before getting the temporary tattoo, so I asked for it to be made permanent instead. I might not have an actual matching soulmark, but I’ll carry your mark with me for the rest of my life.”

Felicity’s eyes filled with tears. He’d had no idea how she would react to finding out they were soulmates, but Oliver had still gone ahead and permanently marked himself, connecting himself to her forever. “Oliver…”

“It’s creepy, isn’t it?” he said, glancing back at her anxiously. “I should have asked your permission first.”

“Turn around,” she demanded.

He narrowed his eyes. “Why?” he asked, but he was swiveling around on the couch.

She threw her arms around him in a tight hug. After a moment, he raised his arms and embraced her back. “For somebody who likes to put on a broody, angsty, tough guy act, you’re a softie at heart. I’m touched you got a permanent tattoo of my soulmark, Oliver - _our_ soulmark.”

“That’s good, because it would be a right pain to get it removed,” he muttered. “Plus, it cost $200 to get done.”

“You’ve spent twice that much on a single bottle of wine before that Dig, you and I drank in less than an hour in the Arrow cave two weeks ago.”

Oliver tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, that’s fair.” Inhaling, he asked, “So everybody already thinks we’re a couple… are we actually going to give this a try?”

She rolled her eyes, kissing him sweetly for a brief moment before pulling back with a questioning, “What do you think?” and a raised eyebrow.

He looked pleased. “And we don’t even have to plan on coming out at all, because the whole world already thinks we’re soulmates and together. All we have to do is run with the story we were telling last night.”

“The fates are probably pointing and laughing at us right now. It’s kind of ironic how our pretending to be a soulmate couple for an Arrow mission ended with us finding out we’re actually soulmates - and resulted in us deciding to give a relationship a go.” Felicity hummed thoughtfully. “100% some kind of holiday miracle.”

Oliver jolted in place, as if suddenly realizing something. “The sun is setting. You need to light your Hanukkiah now.”

Felicity peered out the window, noting the shadows being cast over the high rise buildings in the distance and the darkening of the sky. “You know, there’s another Smoak tradition I didn’t mention before. In our family, we all have our own Hanakiah’s - but our soulmates are meant to light the last candle of each night of Hanukkah. If you want, you can light the third candle for me tonight.”

“Are you sure?” the archer asked worriedly.

“Absolutely.”

They went through the motions of placing the candles, reciting the blessings, lightning the shamash and then lighting each of the candles together. When it came to the third candle, Felicity handed the shamash over to Oliver, who took the candle delicately and touched the tip of its flame down to his candle’s wick. Once it was burning steadily, he slid the shamash back into its candle slot and sat back on the couch with her - drawing Felicity into his arms and resting his chin on top of her head. Felicity snuggled into his side, taking one of his hands within hers to raise it to her mouth and place a tender kiss on his knuckles.

They were soulmates.

They were happy.

“Happy Hanukkah, Felicity.”

“Merry Christmas, Oliver.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


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